Kennedy’s Brain

A Novel

By: Henning Mankell

Narrated by: Anna Bentinck

Henning Mankell, the acclaimed author of the Kurt Wallander Mysteries, has put his unmistakable stamp on this gripping new thriller.

Archaeologist Louise Cantor returns home to Sweden, and makes a devastating discovery: her only child, twenty-eight-year-old Henrik, dead in his bed. The police rule his death a suicide, but she knows he was murdered; her quest to find out what really happened to Henrik takes her across the globe to Barcelona, where her son kept a secret apartment; Sydney, Australia, to find Aron, her estranged ex-husband and Henrik's father; and to Maputo, Mozambique, where she learns the awful truth behind an AIDS hospice. Her investigation reveals how much her son concealed from her as she uncovers the links between his death, the African AIDS epidemic, and Western pharmaceutical interests, while those who dare help her are killed off.

Kennedy's Brain was inspired by Mankell's anger at ongoing inequities that permit a few people to have unprecedented power over the many poor Africans who have none. Kennedy's Brain is both a must-listen thriller and a damning indictment of inhuman greed in the face of the African AIDS crisis.

©2005 Henning Mankell; English translation copyright 2007 by Laurie Thompson (P)2022 Tantor

President Kennedys brain, don't loose its significance, ... Intriguing!

Wait till you find out who has it, that brain.
Quite a different book then Wallander. Not an every day mystery although it contains a questionable death.
There seems to be a back and forth of people to places, who are traveling so much that where you are, is sometimes ...lost.
You gradually notice a definite separation of good and bad, the haves and have nots, and an underlying feeling there is something very wrong with the whole world!
Noticing too, that there is anger growing within toward complacency to a crime!
A silent, "look the other way " toward a happenstance becoming a criminal act .
That "thing" is now running rampant in a major country, One which is so poor and far removed by its location on the earth, that no one seems to care.
The world seems to lack a curiosity. Our murdered man wanted to right this. Get a message to those that would recognize and understand. He lacked the prominence and funding to do so. To make others find out why?
What does this all have to do with Kennedys brain?
It is all about greed and egoism, and fighting back with truth,
versus power and a strong lie.
Don't look down or you will miss the conection!

The story was far fetched

There were some weird things that happened at the beginning of the AIDS epidemic but I think this story beggars belief.

Doesn’t hold together

The story does not seem to hold together and it is rather slow and monotonous in parts. The ending is very predictable and not super interesting.

Not sure what I listened to

This is just a rant about Audible's marketing hijinks: the novel is fine.
This came up as 'free' in October, disappearing Oct. 30. I listened to it, finishing on Oct. 30. I'm not sure -- because it's vanished from my library and there's no description of the version I listened to -- but I think what was provided was about half or two-thirds of the novel. At the end of the narration, the text suggested that the story continued. When I search for it, I get this, which doesn't help. Beware of anything that is advertised by these guys as 'free' or a 'free preview' that's hours long.